Wise interventions in organizations

Abstract

The subjective meanings employees assign to their understandings of themselves, others, and their environments influence an array of important work attitudes and behaviors. We review theory and research on wise interventions that illustrate three fundamental motives that underlie this subjective meaning-making process: the need to understand, the need for self-integrity, and the need to belong. Understanding how employees respond to organizational contexts that call into question or threaten these fundamental motives can potentially enable both organizations and their employees to achieve their goals better. Prior research has shown that wise interventions can bring about long-term beneficial outcomes in the domains of academic performance, stress and health, relationship satisfaction, and conflict reduction. We seek to integrate wise interventions and organizational behavior to explore where, when, and how addressing the fundamental needs of understanding, self-integrity, and belonging can lead to behaviors and attitudes that are beneficial for employees and employers alike. We examine when employees’ subjective meanings are likely to be amenable to influence by wise interventions, such as during key transition points that may be person-centered (e.g., when employees take a new job) or organization-centered (e.g., the introduction of organizational change). We review interventions that have occurred within organizational settings and consider how interventions tested in other contexts (e.g., education) may be applied to organizations. A potentially fruitful liaison awaits organizational behavior researchers interested in the application of wise interventions.